Enriching - or proliferating?

摘要

The discussion on the future of uranium enrichment has now been resolved, for now at least, in favour of gas centrifuge technology, as already used on a commercial scale by Urenco and Russia. Laser enrichment is retained as a possibility for the future, but achieving substantial capacity at low operating costs has so far proved difficult. More recently, however, some new issues have come up which are relevant to the enrichment sector. Firstly, the recent rise in the uranium price (see article in April issue) means that there should be an increased demand for enrichment. This is because utilities have flexibility in choosing the relative amounts of uranium and enrichment to commit to produce enriched uranium - if one component becomes more expensive, it is logical to use more of the other. Secondly, much recent attention has focused on the quality of nuclear industry supply infrastructure, with the sudden realisation that it is perhaps rather more fragile than we thought.